Reading Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
by Water Child 1990
Summary: follow Thalia, Percy, Nico and Annabeth as they get sent to the past to read with the gods... Can they change events or are the gods too stubborn to change.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, they all belong to Rick Riordan :D

The sun shone on the field of camp, everywhere campers trained and satyrs, nymphs and naiads spent their time working the strawberry fields, playing in the water and generally living life.

Up on Olympus it was another story.

Zeus, God of the sky, King of the gods was sitting, watching the other gods argue and bicker amongst themselves. Sat next to each other Artemis was arguing with Apollo about who was best at archery, her hunters or his children. Stood defiantly in front of their thrones Athena was arguing with Ares about which was better, strength or battle tactics when at war. Dionysus was complaining about his punishment and the brats at camp half-blood to Aphrodite who was looking into her mirror and perfecting her already perfect make-up not listening. Hades and Demeter were bickering over Persephone who sat between them both looking slightly depressed. Hermes was sat on his throne whizzing through IM messages with his phone to his ear George and Martha twining around each other looking like a live antennae. Hera was down at the hearth with Hestia gripping about how husbands should be loyal to their wives while shooting nasty looks at Zeus, Hestia was just tending the hearth listening patiently.

Hephaestus and Poseidon were the only others not interacting with the others, Hephaestus because he was tinkering with something and Poseidon because he was over by the window looking out at Olympus.

With a headache brewing behind his eyes and his hands at his temples Zeus snapped.

"THAT IS ENOUGH!" The deities returned to their respective thrones, Poseidon taking one last longing look out the window first.

"We are supposed to be having a council, not bickering among each other acting like children!" Zeus commented, making the other gods and goddesses look down sheepishly.

With a great sigh, he started off.

"First off….." He only got so far before a large bang, a bright flash of light and moments later four Children were in a heap on the floor.

Everyone stared, nonplussed at the sight of four groaning teenagers untangling themselves from each other slowly. Three black haired children and one blonde.

The Olympians were startled into action; each had their weapons of choice aimed at the group in the middle of the room before the group had even finished what they were doing. The blonde looked up and gasped, forcing the others to do exactly the same.

Zeus found himself looking into fierce grey eyes framed by curly locks of blonde hair, the same as his daughter Athena and glanced at said goddess in shock, to see her nod her head minutely as if saying 'yes, I see it too'. She had on an orange camp half-blood t-shirt with green hoodie and blue jeans with dirty white trainers. He turned his head back to scrutinise the other three.

They all looked completely different but were similar in an unidentifiable way.

One of the boys, the smallest of the three it seemed, had shaggy black hair and dark brown almost black eyes. He was dressed all in black, Black t-shirt with skull and crossbones, black jeans with chains hanging from the belt lopes and a black aviator's jacket that looked like it had seen better times.

The girl had spikey black hair sweeping across her electric blue eyes with a circlet of silver weaved between the locks. Her attire was a black t-shirt with the words I Hate Barbie and the silvery trousers and jacket of Artemis' huntresses and black combat boots.

The last boy was the tallest of them all, windswept black hair that shined like ravens wing feathers, and sea green eyes that looked all to wary and old for the youthful face they resided in, Orange camp half-blood t-shirt over which was a grey hoodie and blue jeans that looked worn and trainers that could really do with replacing.

"Who are you? And what are you doing here?"

The children looked at each other, faces confused and wary.

"Don't you recognise us Lord Zeus?" The blonde asked uncertainly, glancing at Athena.

"No should I?" Turning to the other Olympians, he asked "Do any of you know these children?" The other Olympians shook their heads, no. Turning back to the children he eyed them curiously as they consulted with each other quietly.

The other immortals, sensing no threat put their weapons away and settled back onto their thrones watching silently the spectacle that was unfolding before them.

Finally the children turned back towards Zeus, the black haired girl moving forwards while the others stayed back.

"Before we introduce our selves will you please tell us the date and year?" She looked at him steadily and he was forcibly reminded of Thalia, his daughter down on Earth. Athena answered for him.

"It is the 21st December, 2003"

The children gasped and looked at each other. "We've gone back in time! How?" the blonde murmured, seemingly to herself.

The Thalia look-a-like spoke again this time a little fearfully.

"We are Demi-gods and we are from the year 2012, 9 years in the future. We don't know why we are here or how we got here…." She trailed off and moved to stand with the others.

Zeus looked to Poseidon bewildered and his brother just shrugged his shoulders answering his silent question. His gaze switched to Athena who looked just as confused as the others.

"That's impossible!" She said, "You must have some idea of…." She was cut off by another bang and flash of light. A groan sounded as everyone gained their eyesight back again and looked towards the noise. It seemed as if a box had landed on the head of the green eyed boy and made him crumple to the ground dazed.

The Gods looked at him shocked. Judging by its size the box should have knocked the boy out completely, but he just sat up and looked at the box with distaste etched into his features, rubbing his head. The demi gods stared at him for a few seconds before bursting into gales of laughter.

The words "only . . . you . . . Percy" and "Unlucky" could be heard from them between breaths. Apollo looked slightly worried at the young man before; the green eyed boy scowled and stood up again, appeasing the sun god and assuring everyone else he was fine, even though he shouldn't have been.

Taking the box in his hands he tore the envelope away from the package and squinted at the writing.

"Dear Gods and Goddesses of Olympus and demi gods,

Due to future events being unsatisfactory, we, the fates, have decided to send these four demi gods back in time to read these five books with you in the hopes that you can make a better future.

Rules:

You must not blast, kill or maim any of the demi gods

You may not use any of the events in the book as an excuse to cause arguments or fights

And last but not least

You cannot, CANNOT change any of the events to do with mortals until the start of these books

Take our words to heart, and do not break the rules, there will be consequences if you do.

Time has been stopped while you read so there are no duties for the gods to attend to while you are reading, you may not step foot of Olympus while reading.

Good reading to you all,

The Fates"

Silence greeted this letter as the gods all looked at each other, then at the books in the boys' hands.

"Well shall we read then? I'll start shall I?" Zeus summoned the books and separated the first book from the five. "Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the Lightning Thief"

More silence, then

"WHO STOLE MY MASTER BOLT?!"


	2. I Accidently Vaporize My Maths Teacher

Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or any of its characters

"Before we start, you should introduce yourselves." Athena stated, looking towards the demi gods, at the same time conjuring a couch and seats for everyone to sit on together with Hestia.

The black haired girl stepped forward first,

"My name is Thalia Grace." Silence met her words before…

"But, but you were turned into a tree! How are you human again?" Zeus exclaimed, looking wide eyed at his human turned daughter. Thalia grinned at him.

"It'll probably be in the books." She stepped back and the blonde haired Athena look-a-like stepped forward.

"I'm Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena." Athena looked at her daughter with a proud smile while Annabeth looked at her with a smile. The two boys looked at each other before the smallest stepped forward,

"Nico Di Angelo." He stepped back.

Unnoticed on his throne the Lord of the Dead flinched, and then looked at his son in wonder. He hadn't seen him since he placed him in the Lotus Casino and Hotel; he had grown into a handsome young man by the looks of it. A small smile lifted the corners of his mouth slightly.

"Perseus Jackson, but I go by Percy" The last boy said, looking up warily. Poseidon went completely still as he stared at his son. He was going to find out what happened to his son through books? His son stood in front of him now, at the age of 16, when his son was also down on earth at the age of 7.

How surreal was this? Inwardly he shook his head to dispel the thoughts he had, he was going to enjoy time with his son while he could, and neither of his brothers could complain about it, Zeus had already broken the oath by siring Thalia, It would be hypocritical of him to scream about Poseidon doing the same. He couldn't however begrudge Hades of flipping when he found out.

"Ok then, shall we get started?"

**I Accidently Vaporize My Maths Teacher**

Everyone looked at Percy. He looked back at them innocently.

"How do you accidently vaporize your maths teacher?" Ares asked, confused.

"Ah, uh . . . you'll see," Percy smiled sheepishly, "Why don't you carry on reading."

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"Who does?" Thalia looked at Percy

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

Annabeth looked towards Percy and shook her head.

"What? My advice isn't that bad!" Percy said indignantly, seeing the action.

"If it helps you sleep at night Se… Percy" The gods looked suspiciously at Annabeth, they had caught the slip up and wondered what she was going to say.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful nasty ways.**

The gods and goddesses that had demi god children flinched then thought of all the ways their children had died over the years. None could say anything against that. They looked down sadly.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think its fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this happened.**

**But if you recognise yourself in these pages – if you feel something stirring inside – stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And ****once you know that, it's only a matter of time before **_**they**_** sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

"You didn't warn me!" Nico shouted, Percy looked at his cousin and sighed, putting his hand to his head and shaking it slowly.

"That's because when I met you, you were already being attacked by a monster, It's not like I had the chance to say, 'Hey Nico, If you have a weird feeling inside and you think you may be a demi god Ignore what's going on and shut yourself in a room away from here' or something along those lines." Percy responded, the whole sentence dripping with sarcasm.

The Olympians descended into laughter, spurred by the sarcasm in his voice and the bright red shade Nico had turned.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"Yes!" came the response from the other demi gods, Percy pouted and slumped in his seat.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

"See, you agree with us!" Everyone erupted into voracious laughter, Hermes and Apollo falling off their seats.

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started to going bad last May, then our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan – twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"Sounds like fun!" Annabeth and Athena smiled at each other; the others pulled faces not seeing what was so fun about museums.

**I know – it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were.**

Everyone laughed

**But Mr Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip so I had hopes.**

"Why does that name sound familiar?" Athena asked, she looked towards the demi gods and then to Dionysus who was reading a magazine.

"What?" Dionysus asked glancing up.

**Mr Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had this thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armour and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"Chiron!" Athena grinned, happy to have figured it out, the others just smiled in recognition.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

"Yeah, right." Thalia, Nico and Annabeth snorted, "Everywhere you go there's trouble" Thalia continued,

"You're a trouble magnet!" Nico added

**Boy, was I wrong.**

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that . . . Well, you get the idea.**

Apollo and Hermes were rolling on the floor laughing now, tears streaming from their eyes.

"Brilliant! Your awesome kid!" Ares shouted

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

"Not going to happen." Thalia and Nico sang, badly.

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly red-headed kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend, Grover, in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

Everyone scrunched up their noses, the goddesses looking slightly green.

**Grover was an easy target.**

"It's a good job he isn't here now isn't it, he wouldn't be too happy with you for that."  
Thalia laughed, Percy scowled at her.

**He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

Dionysus shook his head, in disbelief

"Satyrs"

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death-**

"What . . . !" Everyone screamed, Poseidon paled and gripped the arms of his chair.

**Death-by-in-school-suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even entertaining happened on this trip.**

"Oh . . ." Everyone sighed in relief, Poseidon relaxed again.

Athena noticed Poseidon's actions, and stored the information away for later.

"**I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"Do it!" Ares shouted

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

"**That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

"Aw, why'd you stop?" Ares whined

Hera cast a disapproving glance at him.

"**You're already on probation," He reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wished I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into. **

Everyone tensed again.

Poseidon looked worriedly at Percy; many of the Olympians looked at him in surprise. When he realise he had observers Poseidon's expression cleared, going emotionless, while inside he was screaming with worry.

**Mr Brunner led the ****museum tour.** **He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery. It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years!**

"More than that, young man." Hera said, looking at Percy

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs Dodd's, would give me the evil eye. **

Annabeth looked at Percy, a question in her eyes. Percy nodded his head and Annabeth turned back to Zeus.

Athena looked on, wondering what connection existed between them both.

**Mrs Dodd's was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. **

**She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

**From her first day, Mrs Dodd's loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs Dodd's was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

Hades leaned back into his seat, thinking hard. The description sounded very familiar to him.

**Mr Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art. Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to. The whole group laughed. **

Everyone laughed

**Mr Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr Jackson," he said, "Did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

**"Yes," Mr Brunner said, obviously not satisfied, "And he did this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god,**

"WHAT!" Zeus glared at Percy, who shrunk in his seat before sitting up and glaring back.

"I was 12 and I got it wrong, I know now." Percy responded.

Everyone was silent. No demi god had ever talked back when Zeus had shouted. Zeus glared at Percy for the last time before carrying on reading.

**and—"**

**"God?" Mr Brunner asked.**

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead.**

"I want to know how you could mistake a baby for a rock." Exclaimed Hermes, giggling.

**And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

**"Ewww!" said one of the girls behind me.**

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "And the gods won."**

Silence again.

"You managed to shorten a war that lasted years into a few sentences." Deadpanned Artemis,

Percy shrugged

**Some snickers came from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr Jackson," Brunner said, "To paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"She got busted!" Shouted Hermes and Apollo in sync

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

Everyone laughed at Hermes and Apollo's faces

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

**"I see." Mr Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs Dodd's, would you lead us back outside?"**

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr Brunner said, "Mr Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr Brunner. **

**"Sir?"**

**Mr Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"He's older than that, boy" Hephaestus commented, making many jump as they had forgotten that he was there.

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry; this guy pushed me so hard.**

"He has to, to help you survive. Duh!" Nico said, receiving a smack over the head from Percy in reply.

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armour and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped.**

**But Mr Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

"Sounds cool!" Apollo grinned, looking towards Hermes. Poseidon smiled at his nephews antics agreeing silently that it didn't sound too bad.

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"Probably was." Hades put in, distractedly.

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas.**

Everyone looked to Zeus, who shrugged his shoulders in reply

**We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, and wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

"Ok what's wrong with you both now?" Hera looked towards her husband and brother, her gaze hard. The brothers looked at each other, then back at her shrugging.

"How should we know, it's in the future." They answered together, causing the demi gods to splutter with laughter.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs Dodd's wasn't seeing a thing.**

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

"That's obvious." Thalia quipped.

"Hey! He has his moments." Defended Annabeth, Percy nodded his head in agreement, until the last part, and then glared at Annabeth. She just smiled at him in response.

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"Aww." The goddesses cooed, Poseidon smiled with them.

Percy smiled, thinking about his mum. He was joined by Annabeth, Thalia and Nico

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

"Someone needs to teach her a lesson on manners!" commented Hera, indignantly.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counsellor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

"A wave?" Hades and Zeus looked to Poseidon with suspicion.

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs Dodd's materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

"POSEIDON!" Zeus screamed, "YOU BROKE THE OATH!" Poseidon sat on his throne looking disdainfully at his youngest brother; Hades had yet to say anything.

"Zeus," He said carefully, "You cannot say anything, as you broke the oath first." He glared back at Zeus as he floundered like a fish out of water.

Hades fumed silently, he would wait and see if this demi god was troubled or not, then he would pass judgement, for he hadn't broken the oath but he was hiding his children, which was just as bad really, if you took into account why they made the oath in the first place.

"Zeus, please continue." Hades asked quietly, Poseidon looked at him with concern.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs Dodd's was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs Dodd's turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. **

**"Now, honey—"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"NEVER GUESS YOUR PUNISHMENT!" Hermes shouted, "1st rule in the book!"

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

"No, duh!" Thalia rolled her eyes "Ya think?"

Nearly everyone chuckled, the tension abated somewhat.

**"Come with me," Mrs Dodd's said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs Dodd's scared Grover to death. She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—will—stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs Dodd's barked at me. "Now."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. **

"Can't be as good as mine!" Ares bragged. Thalia, Nico and Annabeth fidgeted in their seats.

"Ah, err . . . hate to tell you this, but . . . erm . . . yeah it is, probably scarier actually." The stammered out. Ares looked at them, astonished, then at Percy who was grinning smugly.

**Then I turned to face Mrs Dodd's, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counsellor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

"Don't be too sure." Athena and Annabeth stated, they looked at each other are grinned. Percy shook his head, smiling. Like Mother, like daughter.

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs Dodd's.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

Poseidon clenched the arms of his seat. _What was Chiron doing?_ He thought_ he should be watching Percy!_

**I looked back up. Mrs Dodd's had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

"I don't think that's the plan, dear." Demeter stated, worried. She didn't have anything against the boy.

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

"Didn't think it was." Muttered Hades, quietly.

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

"Dun, dun, dun . . ." Apollo sang, trying to dissipate the tension. He failed.

**Mrs Dodd's stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

"Probably was," Muttered Nico, "Especially if it's who I think it is." He looked to Percy, who nodded. Nico groaned for his cousin, Percy always had bad luck.

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs Dodd's. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

"Get away with what?" Asked Athena, she hated not knowing, everyone was in agreement.

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

"Guess again, Percy." Hades and Nico whispered.

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

Everyone looked again at Zeus,

"What's got your toga in a twist?" Demeter asked, seconded by Hermes and Apollo. Zeus just shrugged. "No idea."

Athena started putting the pieces together; the title of the book, the way Percy and Poseidon seemed to be involved. She gasped and looked towards the demi gods for confirmation.

They nodded but put their fingers to their lips to ask for silence. She nodded and sat back, thankful to have figured it out. Poseidon was watching unnoticed, he too seemed to have figured it out.

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs Dodd's said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"Percy!" Said boy quailed under the glare his girlfriend bestowed upon him.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened, her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shrivelled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons. Then things got even stranger.**

"How can they get any stranger?" Apollo asked, confused.

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

"OH, Yeah ok." Apollo nodded his head; Zeus looked at him annoyed with the interruptions

**Mrs Dodd's lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

**Mrs Dodd's spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

Ares sneered, "Wuss." He got a face full of sea water for his troubles.

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword. The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!**

**Mrs Dodd's was a sand castle in a power fan. **

"Cool description, cuz." Nico grinned. Percy smiled back.

**She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulphur, a dying screech, and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

"You're letting the mist affect you after that?" Athena looked at him in disbelief. He just shrugged.

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs Kerr whipped your butt."**

**I said, "Who?"**

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

"Ah, the wonders of the mist." Sighed Hermes.

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs Dodd's was.**

**He said, "Who?" But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved. I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "Where's Mrs Dodd's?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs Dodd's. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs Dodd's on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs Dodd's at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"So what have we learned from this chapter?" Hermes asked around. Apollo was the first to answer

"Grover can't lie, Chiron can?" He asked it as a question; Artemis shook her head "You're hopeless, brother."

Everyone laughed as the tension from the chapter broke, relieved for the break.

"So, who's next?" Zeus held the book out

"I'll take it," Hades replied, standing up from his seat to retrieve the book. He turned to the next chapter to start.


	3. Three Old Ladies Knit The Socks Of Death

Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson, unfortunately: C

"**Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death****," **Hades stopped, his face taking a narrow eyed look as he thought.

"Why does that sound familiar?" He was not the only one to think it, the demi gods on the other hand looked at Percy with horror

"YOU SAW THE FATES?" Thalia and Nico looked in shock at Annabeth, who was facing Percy red faced.

Percy looked alarmed. His hands in front of him in a guarded gesture, top half leaning away from her, as if she was going to explode.

"Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't Grover tell me? Did Chiron know?" She fired questions at him in distress.

Percy's stance softened as she broke down into tears, he took her in his arms and whispered softly in her ears. Eventually, her crying was reduced to sniffles and she nodded and turned back to Hades, staying in Percy's embrace.

The gods looked on in amazement, Thalia and Nico just smiled at the pair, causing Percy to give a small smile in return, hugging Annabeth tighter to him.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our maths teacher since Christmas.**

**Ever****y so often I would spring a Mrs**** Dodd's reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up,** **but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

Hermes, Apollo and Nico cackled madly.

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs Dodd's had never existed.**

**Almost.**

**But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodd's to him, he would hesitate, and then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying. **

Dionysus sighed, _Satyrs, can't do anything right when it comes to lying._

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs Dodd's with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

"Right there with you cuz," Nico and Thalia agreed, all four demi gods shuddered in remembrance.

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

"You really are in a bad mood aren't you Zeus?" Hestia said, looking towards her youngest brother, with a frown.

"Seems so sister," Was the only reply she received.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from D's to F's. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

Athena gasped, astonished that someone could be sent out so much without getting sent out.

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

The gods chuckled, Athena turned to Percy,

"Look over there," she nodded her head in Dionysus's direction, "That's what it means."

Percy just chuckled, nodding his head to show he understood.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

"Aww," The goddesses cooed, Hera and Poseidon smiled. Poseidon with memories of Sally Jackson, Hera because of the devotion the demi god had to his mother.

"Now why can't you two be like that," she scolded her sons. Hephaestus and Ares looked at her in disbelief, Ares stayed silent

"You threw me off Olympus, why should I" Hephaestus said, turning his head away, Hera huffed.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

Percy growled, anger prominent on his face. Poseidon looked at him, his forehead creasing in worry.

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods outside my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the **_**Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology**_** across my dorm room.**

Athena gaped, _how could anyone do that?_

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,** **or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

Hermes looked slyly towards Dionysus, a plan forming.

**I remembered Mr**** Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes.**_** I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**_

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

Athena nodded in satisfaction, Annabeth just shook her head. She understood the frustration that Percy had with books.

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said,"... worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper, **

"Sure you're not," Nico rolled his eyes at Percy, who just stuck his tongue out in reply.

**-but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"Couldn't do it!" The male Olympians synced before laughing at each other. The women sighed.

**I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too—"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead line—"**

"What deadline?" Apollo asked, looking towards Athena. She just shrugged.

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he saw her..."**

**"His imagination," Mr Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

Everyone looked at Thalia, who gazed back serenely. They all knew what had happened.

"Second book," was the only response.

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next autumn—"**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"NOOOOOOO . . . ! Never give away your position!" Cried Hermes, looking at Percy.

**Mr Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

"Good, leave no evidence," He nodded his head, Artemis, Hera and Zeus looked at him strangely.

"He DOES know he's talking to a book right?" Aphrodite asked Demeter.

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

"Phew, no more chance of getting caught, you can leave now." Percy looked at Hermes strangely,

"You do know this has already happened, don't you?" He asked, Hermes blushed when everyone laughed.

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just... tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

"It's not going to work!" Sang Dionysus, "Satyrs can sense emotions, they don't need to read your face."

"I know that now." Grumbled Percy, glaring at the wine god.

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr Brunner called me back inside.**

"Uh, oh, you're in trouble," Sang Apollo. He and Hermes broke into a song and dance routine. Everyone laughed.

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

"Hate that girl." Annabeth growled. Thalia, Nico and Percy agreed.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favourite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

**"Percy—"**

**But I was already gone.**

"Chiron really can't give good pep talks can he?" Chuckled Zeus, Poseidon threw a withered glare at his brother.

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"Hey, we're not nobodies!" Apollo cried indignantly. Percy chuckled.

"I didn't know about you then."

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the autumn.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

**The only person I dreaded saying goodbye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

Thalia roared with laughter while Percy scratched the back of his head sheepishly, smiling.

"But that scared the living daylights out of him!" Nico chuckled, giving Percy a cheshire grin.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr Brunner the night before the exam.**

"Don't confess . . .!" Hermes moaned, dejectedly. Everyone could hear him muttering to himself about lessons.

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

**"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

**"Grover—"**

**"And I was telling Mr Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs Dodd's, and ..."**

"Grover's a really, really bad liar." Chuckled Thalia.

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"Apparently, Percy agrees." Poseidon grinned, while Thalia looked scared to have said the same thing as her seaweed brained cousin.

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer."**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

_**Grover Underwood, Keeper**_

_**Half-Blood Hill**_

_**Long Island, New York**_

_**(800) 009-0009**_

"Why's it in fancy script?" The gods looked confused, Dionysus cackled in delight. "It's funny watching them try to read it."

**"What's Half—"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or...or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

"Percy!" Hestia and Annabeth looked shocked.

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

Both relaxed into their former positions as they accepted that line.

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended **_**me**_**.**

"Aww such a loyal friend," Hestia smiled at Percy, making him blush pink.

Artemis looked at Percy in slight wonderment, _Maybe not all males are bad?_

**"Grover," I said, "What exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and steered the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes of clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

Everybody tensed, knowing exactly who the three old ladies actually were.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

Poseidon paled and gripped the arms of his chair tightly, resisting the urge to walk over to Percy and hold onto him for dear life.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"Not funny Percy," Annabeth was curled in his lap, pale as a ghost, gripping the front of his shirt like a vice. "Not funny at all."

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

Everyone was so caught up in the story no one commented on the unintended repetition.

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

"Listen to him son." Poseidon urged. No one commented on him talking to a book, they were just as worried.

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

"Listen to him Seaweed Brain!" Thalia repeated. Nico looked at her weirdly. She didn't pay attention to him, all eyes on the book in the Lord of the Dead's hands.

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

Everyone sat pale faced, staring at Percy. No one laughed.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

"Everything," Whispered Hades, looking at his nephew.

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs Dodd's, are they?"**

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs Dodd's. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.**

_Perceptive _Thought Athena, _Maybe there's hope for him yet._

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He just looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

Hades closed the book on the chapter, before setting it on the chair arm next to him.

Everyone was silent, lost in their own thoughts, Percy more than everyone else. He was thinking back to whom the yarn was actually representing, and he had to fight the urge to look at Hermes with sympathy.

Nico broke the silence with a huge yawn, barely covering his mouth before everyone looked at him surprised. The other demi gods yawning brought about the realisation of the time and the gods made the unanimous decision to finish for the night and continue in the morning.

The parents of each demi god respectively showed each of their children to the rooms they would be staying in, before flashing to their own rooms, retiring for the night.

Well that's it for that chapter, I'm thinking of bringing in some other faces but who? And from which times? Any ideas, all welcome :D


	4. Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Trousers

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson

Thank you for the reviews guys, you know who you are! :D On with the next chapter.

In the morning after everyone had had breakfast and they gathered in the throne room again.

"Who's going to read now?" Apollo asked, looking around.

Before anyone could say anything else a bright flash blinded everyone, ant two figures appeared, falling on top of an unfortunate Percy.

"Oww," is all that could be heard from the dog pile of three before the two on top were finally able to move, and did so quickly, revealing a stunned looking Percy.

Thalia and Nico stared, and burst into raucous laughter, while Annabeth chuckling walked over to help Percy onto the nearest couch.

The gods looked at the new comers, and gave sounds of disbelief, before another bright flash and a note appeared in front of Zeus.

"_We thought that we might add a bit of legend to the party. You all know the stories of Hercules and Theseus, I think it's time for them to learn a little about the demi gods of this time too. _

_Make them feel welcome. _

_The Fates_

Everyone looked to them. Hercules, the demi god turned god looked at them and gave a cold smile, regarding everyone with a steel gaze. He spared no look for his father or the queen of the gods however and kept his gaze anywhere but them. His black hair was very short and his blue eyes shone like ice, the only thing about him that seemed warm was his skin, a warm copper colour, showing that he had been outside for most of his life. His weapon of choice slung over his shoulder carelessly.

Theseus was completely different. Curly black hair and green eyes, his cloak fastened with a silver seashell shaped clasp. He stood shorter than Percy and seemed warmer than Hercules, though slightly wary, looking at everyone around him in wonder, marvelling at the differences of the modern world.

Chuckling coming to an end, Thalia, Nico, Annabeth and Percy glared at Hercules. They had seen the results of his arrogance, then glanced curiously at Theseus, not knowing much about him other than he had warned Nico against Midas. Dionysus glared at Theseus, his dislike of the demi god sprouting from his wife's experiences with him, while Artemis glared at Hercules, affronted on behalf of her lieutenant, Zoe.

Poseidon broke the silence the new comers had brought by picking up the book.

"**Grov****er Unexpectedly Loses his Pants," **Poseidon read, everyone looked at Percy, eyebrows raised.

"What?" He asked, raising his defensively. "I didn't write this. Don't blame me."

"It's your thoughts Seaweed brain," Thalia argued, Percy just shrugged.

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

"Percyyyyy," Annabeth groaned.

**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to be sixth grade?"**

"Yeah, ok. That would freak me out too." Thalia agreed, Nico nodded his agreement.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom.**

**Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

**"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

"Fantastic," Thalia said,

"Kind," Nico added,

"Marvellous," Annabeth intoned. Percy just smiled at his friends, while the gods smiled at them. Hercules and Theseus looked jealous.

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.**

"What?" Thalia and Nico asked, confused. Percy just shook his head and turned to the book. His jaw was strained and fist clenched. Annabeth took his hand in support.

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

"Aww," Aphrodite cooed, Hestia smiled at her brother.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile.**

"I visited you once, when you were a baby." Poseidon interrupted himself. Theseus looked at his half-brother, his eyes jealous.

**My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

"Nice. Not telling the truth but not lying either." Hermes looked impressed.

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

"None of us are really," Percy commented, getting glares from the other demi gods, "what? You know it's true!" he added defensively seeing their glares. Nico snorted.

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colours as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nick named him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like mouldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

"Eww," Everyone scrunched their noses in disgust.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.**

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

**"Where's my mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

"What?" Even Hera looked appalled. "He asked you for money? Why that low life, good for nothing . . ." Annabeth continued with the insults, making many eyebrows raise and the demi gods look at her in surprise.

"Finished now?" Hercules asked, amusement clear in his tone, Annabeth looked at him, surprised before nodding.

**That was it. No welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**

"I think I would have died of shock if that had happened!" Percy laughed, coldly.

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

Aphrodite mimed throwing up, to the amusement of everyone else.

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting pay checks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

Silence before,

"Did he ever hit you Percy?" Poseidon sounded calm, but everyone knew it was the calm before the storm, even Theseus looked angry. Percy fidgeted uneasily under his father's scrutiny. "Percy."

"Once," Percy muttered, Poseidon looked murderous. "Dad he get what he deserves, please calm down!"

Zeus decided to interrupt "Poseidon, you must calm down brother, you're going to flood Manhattan otherwise. POSEIDON!" The ground underneath them started shaking before Poseidon took a deep breath and calmed down enough to read.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. **

**"Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

"At least one of them is semi decent." Hera muttered under her breath.

**"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

Hermes and Apollo gagged. Theseus scowled in disgust.

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

"He will do, if I have any say in it." Dionysus told Percy, gleefully.

**"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

Athena snorted, "You can't say much . . . Idiot!"

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

"Gotta love the sarcasm Perce." Nico laughed.

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs Dodd's, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

"What old ladies?" Theseus asked, Hercules looked on in askance too. Demeter went over everything that had happened so far bringing them up to speed on everything.

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic—how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

The demi gods shuddered sympathetically.

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room.**

Poseidon smiled in rememberance.

**Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few grey streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad.**

**I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

"She's just brilliant like that," Quipped Thalia, looking towards Percy grinning. He nodded and grinned back.

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, liquorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

Apollo and Hermes gaped like fish. Snapping their fingers they also had bags of sweets each. With another snap so did all the demi gods.

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

"Boys," muttered Artemis, but there was no real vitriol behind it.

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?"**

Poseidon gritted his teeth.

**I gritted my teeth.**

Zeus literally had to clamp his hand over his mouth from pointing out the similarities between his brother and nephew.

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself.**

**I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

**Until that trip to the museum...**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

**"No, Mom."**

"Don't lie to your mother!" Hera and surprisingly Hermes shouted. Percy looked at him in surprise.

"What," He muttered, "Your mother is going to be the only one who believes you no matter what, you shouldn't lie to her." Percy nodded.

**I felt bad lying. **

"So you should." Athena said.

**I wanted to tell her about Mrs Dodd's and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

"Nope, she's clear sighted," Poseidon said looking at his son.

Zeus, Hades and Athena looked at Poseidon mouths agape. Poseidon just smirked.

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

**"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

**"Three nights—same cabin."**

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

"He had better!" Poseidon's anger was growing again. Percy gulped.

_If he was reacting like this now, how would the rest of the story go?_

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your step father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

"Clothes budget!" Screeched Aphrodite, "Clothes budget, I'll make sure she has enough clothes that she doesn't need a clothes budget after this." She sat down breathing hard and glaring at the book in Poseidon's hand.

**"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

**"We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

"Do it. Do it." Ares chanted. No one said anything to that. They were thinking the same thing.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

Nico laughed, Thalia just smirked "That wasn't sarcastic at all was it Percy?" He did the mature thing and stuck his tongue out at her.

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game.**

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride—as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking—and more important, his '78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.**

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

"Like he'd be the one driving, he's twelve." Athena muttered.

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

Athena looked horrified, everyone chuckled.

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain.**

**As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the stair case as if he'd been shot from a cannon.**

Everyone looked at Percy open mouthed, "How did you do that?" Theseus asked. Percy shook his head.

**Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

Everyone laughed.

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in. I loved the place.**

Athena and Annabeth shuddered. Poseidon, Theseus and Percy grinned.

_Sounds good_ Theseus thought.

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine.**

**We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

_What's with all the blue? _Zeus and Hercules thought.

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs Ugliano—was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.  
**

Thalia looked at Percy in disbelief.

"Streak? Really Percy, that's down playing it a LOT don't you think?" Thalia asked, Percy blushed.

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk—my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

Everyone looked at Poseidon and Percy, noting that he really did look like a miniature Poseidon.

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

"Yep, I am." Poseidon looked at Percy, and then at Theseus "I am proud of all my children, even if they do make mistakes sometimes." Theseus looked down, a warm feeling radiating through his chest at the admission.

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

**"But... he knew me as a baby."**

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me...**

**I felt angry at my father. **

Poseidon flinched.

**Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?"**

Everyone looked at Percy in disbelief.

"How could you think that, Percy?" Theseus looked at his brother steadily.

"I didn't not really, I was just angry about having to go away all the time and leaving my mom with Gabe. I didn't want to go away." Theseus nodded, and accepted the reason. Everyone else did too.

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

**"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

**"Safe from what?"**

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me—all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

Zeus looked at his brother, eyebrow raised.

"I sent him to keep an eye on him." Poseidon said, unaware he had just made a pun.

Athena snorted and Hermes and Apollo laughed.

**Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

Everyone gaped, looking at a blushing Percy as he shrugged.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs Dodd's at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."**

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

"BEST CAMP EVER!" Thalia, Nico Annabeth and Percy sang.

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born— talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."**

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

"Hate your dreams Percy, something bad always happens." Annabeth sighed depressed. Hercules and Theseus looked at each other, then at Percy curiously. _How could anyone be so unlucky?_

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.**

**The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

"It wasn't me," Hades defended when everyone looked at him. "If they were fighting I'd probably be there joining in or watching laughing at them."

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!**

"YES I won, HA." Zeus laughed. Hera just hit him over the back of his head. Theseus chuckled.

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming; the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. **

"Yeah uncle P, how could you forget?" Hercules teased, receiving a glare from said uncle for his troubles.

**Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

Annabeth and Percy sighed, memories of that night flashing through their heads.

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"How could he not be Grover?" Nico asked looking at Percy.

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

**My mother looked at me in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

**"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!"he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on—and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be...**

"What? Should be what?" Nico badgered.

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"**

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs Dodd's, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

**Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.  
**

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

"Oh, I get it now." Nico said, Percy looked at his cousin and shook his head. Theseus and Hercules chuckled, and Thalia just shared a look with Annabeth, one word going through their heads. _Boys!_

"Ok, that's the end of that chapter. Who's next?" Poseidon held up the book, which was immediately snatched from his hand my Ares after a glare from his mother.

"There had better be action in the next chapter." He muttered, sitting back down.

A.N – What do you think? Please review :D


	5. My Mother Teaches Me Bull Fighting

Hey thank for all the review s, this is my first story so it helps that people like what I'm writing. I'm sorry that I've not updated for a while I've been a bit ill with migraines and looking at the computer doesn't help. Anyway on with the next chapter….: D

**'Chapter 4 – My Mother Teaches me Bull Fighting,'** Ares recited, looking curiously at Percy.

"I didn't know your mom could bull-fight Percy." Percy glared at Ares, "She can't." He snapped.

Poseidon paled.

**We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the wind shield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.**

Thalia and Nico looked at Percy. If Mrs Jackson/Blofis was flooring the gas there was definitely something wrong.

Annabeth looked at Percy; she was finally going to find out what happened that night after so long waiting. She was both apprehensive and nervous, while she knew the results of the quest, she didn't know how it started.

**Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants.**

Hercules and Dionysus allowed a smile at that, though Theseus, Nico, Annabeth and Thalia laughed outright.

"I'm going to tell him you said that!" Thalia chuckled to Percy, while he just smiled.

**But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo— lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

Apollo and Hermes laughed, Aphrodite looked disgusted.

**All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom... know each other?"**

Annabeth rolled her eyes at her boyfriend.

**Grover's eyes flitted to the rear view mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."**

**"Watching me?"**

"STALKER!" Percy jumped at the shouts echoing around the room, looking at the ones who had shouted. Hermes, Apollo, Nico and surprisingly Theseus looked back at everyone sheepishly.

**"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."**

**"Um... what are you, exactly?"**

**"That doesn't matter right now."**

**"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"**

Annabeth, Thalia, Nico and Dionysus laughed, "He's not going to like that."

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"**

"See."

**I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.**

**"Goat!" he cried.**

**"What?"**

**"I'm a goat from the waist down."**

**"You just said it didn't matter."**

"He is right; Grover did just say it didn't matter." Nico nodded along with his words emphasising the point. Everyone looked at him. Thalia put her head in her hands and groaned, _how is he my cousin?_

Most of the gods privately agreed, but didn't say anything.

**"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you under hoof for such an insult!"**

**"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr Brunner's myths?"**

**"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs Dodd's a myth?"**

**"So you admit there was a Mrs Dodd's!"**

"God's your slow Percy!" Thalia looked at her cousin in disbelief; Percy scowled in her direction before replying. "Well sorry if everyone I know was trying to make me believe there wasn't a Mrs Dodd's. It's weird when they suddenly switch to agreeing with you!"

Thalia didn't have a reply. No one did, put it like that and most would have acted the same.

**"Of course."**

**"Then why—"**

**"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."**

**"Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?"**

"He means . . ." Nico started but Annabeth put a hand over his mouth. "Please continue Lord Ares."

**The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

**"Percy," my mom said, "There's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."**

**"Safety from what? Who's after me?"**

"Oh just the Lord of the Dead and his blood-thirstiest minions." Said Annabeth rolling her eyes at Percy.

**"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."**

Annabeth blushed. Poseidon gritted his teeth and glared at Hades. Everyone else laughed while Hades looked uncomfortable sitting next to his brother.

**"Grover!"**

**"Sorry, Mrs Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"**

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.**

"I'd rather have that as my dream than what comes next." Percy stated grimly. Everyone looked at the Demigod, wondering what on earth could come next, that was worse. Poseidon looked at his son fearfully.

**My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.**

"Hmmmm….You want to know what comes to mind when strawberries are mentioned?" Percy asked Annabeth. She looked at him and tilted her head inquisitively. "A certain son of Hermes and daughter of Demeter." Annabeth laughed along with him. Thalia and Nico not knowing what they were on about.

**"Where are we going?" I asked.**

**"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."**

Percy smiled "My second home." The Olympians and Demigods smiled at the thought of camp, Theseus looked on in confusion while Hercules shook his head with a scowl.

**"The place you didn't want me to go."**

**"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."**

**"Because some old ladies cut yarn."**

**"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die."**

**"Whoa. You said 'you.'"**

**"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"**

**"You meant 'you.' As in me."**

**"I meant you, like 'someone'. Not you, you."**

"STOP! You're making my head hurt." Nico clutched his head dramatically, "Can't you speak properly Percy?" He looked up at him smirking, to see Percy sticking his tongue out at him. "I understood it alright. Sucks to be you if you didn't."

All the gods chuckled.

**"Boys!" my mom said.**

**She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.**

"What was that? Percy?" Poseidon had paled; Theseus looked at his half-brother worried.

**"What was that?" I asked.**

Hermes and Apollo chuckled at the repetition between father and son. Others just smiled to caught up in the story to do anything else.

**"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."**

**I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.**

So did everyone else.

**Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs Dodd's and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me.**

"No, duh. . ."

**Then I thought about Mr Brunner ... and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom and our car exploded.**

Poseidon jumped up and walked over to Percy, making sure he was ok. Theseus looked on rolling his eyes at the protectiveness his father, feeling slightly jealous of the attention his brother was receiving. _Then again I wouldn't want to go through what Percy is even to get attention from father._

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.**

**I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."**

**"Percy!" my mom shouted.**

**"I'm okay..."**

**I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.**

**Lightning.**

"ZEUS!" Poseidon whipped around to find his youngest brother backing away from him slowly, hands rising to a defensive position in front of him.

"Now Poseidon, let's not be too hasty." He bargained as he watched Poseidon stalk slowly towards him, an angry gleam in his eyes. "It didn't kill him as he's obviously still here . . ."

He didn't get to finish as Poseidon leaped on him pummelling him with fists as fast as lightning.

Ares cheered, but he was the only one. It took Hephaestus, Hermes and Hades to pull Poseidon off of Zeus, Poseidon breathing heavily. "Ares continue." He said in a dangerous voice.

**That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"**

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!**

"Aww so loyal." The goddesses cooed. Annabeth smiled at Percy, snuggling into his side.

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

Everyone laughed.

**"Percy," my mother said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered.**

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.**

Poseidon's glare was now aimed at his older brother. Hades swallowed, face remaining expressionless.

**I swallowed hard. "Who is—"**

**"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."**

**My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

Poseidon growled.

**"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"**

Percy and Annabeth looked at Thalia.

**"What?"**

**Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

**"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."**

**"Mom, you're coming too."**

**Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.**

**"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."**

**"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.**

**The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like horns …**

Theseus paled, realising who his brother had to go against. Hercules smirked _He'll get help, he won't be able to face HIM on his own._

**"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."**

**"But..."**

**"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."**

**I got mad, then—mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.**

**I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."**

**"I told you—"**

**"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."**

_Aww_ Hera thought. No one wanted to break the story by talking.

**I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.**

**Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.**

**Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except under-wear**

**I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.**

**His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.**

_Kelp head_ Thalia thought exasperated, shaking her head.

**I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.**

**I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—"**

**"Pasiphae's son," my mother said.**

Athena's eyebrows rose in surprise as she turned to worried Poseidon. However she didn't comment.

**"I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."**

**"But he's the Min—"**

**"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."**

**The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least.**

**I glanced behind me again.**

**The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.**

**"Food?" Grover moaned.**

**"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"**

**"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."**

Athena, Annabeth and Ares nodded an affirmative.

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.**

**Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.**

**Oops.**

Everyone chuckled.

**"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way— directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"**

**"How do you know all this?"**

**"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."**

Annabeth and Thalia shook their heads _Mrs Jackson isn't selfish_

**"Keeping me near you? But—"**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.**

**He'd smelled us.**

**The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter. The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us. My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."**

**I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.**

Everyone's noses wrinkled in disgust.

**He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.**

**The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing.**

Theseus tensed with empathy, knowing exactly what Percy was going through. Hercules smirked.

**So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.**

**The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.**

**We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.**

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eying my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

**"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"**

**But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummelling the air.**

**"Mom!"**

**She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"**

**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply ... gone.**

"NO!" Poseidon yelled, collapsing to the ground inconsolable, until Percy walked up to him to whisper in his ear. He calmed down a bit.

**"No!"**

**Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs Dodd's grew talons.**

**The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.**

**I couldn't allow that.**

"And it starts." Annabeth commented. Everyone looked at her confused.

**I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

**"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"**

**"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.**

**I had an idea — a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all.**

**I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.**

**But it didn't happen like that.**

**The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.**

**Time slowed down.**

**My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in mid-air, and landing on his neck.**

Theseus gaped like a fish "How did you do that?"

**How did I do that?**

**I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.**

**The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.**

**The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.**

**Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.**

**"Food!" Grover moaned.**

**The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might.**

Hercules and Ares snorted, "Not going to happen."

**The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—snap!**

Their mouths fell open along with everyone else's. Nico nodded as confirming something. "That's the one . . ." "Yeah." Was the answer he got.

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.**

**The monster charged.**

**Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barrelled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.**

**The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs Dodd's had burst apart.**

**The monster was gone.**

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open.**

Apollo and Hermes winced.

**I was weak and scared and trembling with grief. I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farm house. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go.**

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's.**

"Aww, He already thinks you're pretty." Thalia taunted Annabeth, she blushed bright red.**  
**

**They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."**

"Yes Annabeth. Yes he is." Athena looked at Nico, wondering what he was talking about, and then looked towards where her daughter was curled next to the sea spawn. Her jaw tensed.

**"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

"Well that was the end, who's next?" Ares let the book fall into an empty seat, and stretched flexing his muscles at Aphrodite in the process, grinning.

No one moved while the chapter processed. Percy was sat next to his father still with Annabeth curled up into his side. Thalia and Nico looked pensive, working out what they knew of Percy and Mrs Jackson and coming up empty handed. He had never mentioned anything like this in the conversations of his first years at camp.

Athena picked up the book, flipped to the right page and started to read.


End file.
